The 2017 Cotswold Hare trail launches on 25 March – watch the website http://www.cirencestermarchharefestival.org.uk/  and follow on facebook and twitter for the launch countdown and details of events during the summer.

 

The hares will go to auction in October with the net profits going to charity. This year the main charity will be National Star, but the Cotswold Hare Trail will also support local historical projects in Cotswold towns

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In 2013 Florence Beetlestone took on the challenge of setting up a 6 month long Festival for the Cirencester Community Development Trust. The Cirencester March Hare Festival was put into action in 2014 celebrating the Town’s links with the famous Roman Hare Mosaic in the Corinium Museum and involving the inaugural Trail of 5 foot hare sculptures decorated by local artists. The money raised at the auction at the end of the Trail went to Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) to assist them in setting up a permanent new walkway around the River Churn in Cirencester for the benefit of locals and tourists alike. The GWT worked closely with Cirencester Town Council and in 2015 the Hare Festival Way was opened by the Duke of Gloucester as a legacy for the Town.

In 2015 the Cirencester March Hare Festival celebrated hare art with a Passport trail of 18″ high hares (leverets): a community arts event featuring artists’s images of hares in a town wide open exhibition; hare workshops with the Corinium Museum and National Trust Chedworth Roman Villa and seven new hare sculptures were commissioned for permanent siting along the Hare Festival Way.

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In 2016 Watermoor Primary School pupils decorated mini hares (6″ high) which were then displayed around Cirencester in its shops and local businesses thus keeping the Hare Festival innovative and embedding it in the heart of the local community.

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2017 saw the return of the five foot hares, but this time featuring them in a new Cotswold wide Trail. The Cotswold Hare Trail also expanded on numbers with 80 large hares and 22 leverets across a wide region stretching from Bristol to Broadway, Cheltenham to Woodstock. Auction proceeds this time were donated to National Star. The success of this trail prompted the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to decide to partner the event in 2018.

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See all the hares of 2017 http://www.cotswoldsharetrail.org.uk/gallery/#/2017-large-hares

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Lake Hare was sponsored by Lakes By Yoo